Six Nations 2012 Highlights

Six weeks of exciting rugby is starting this weekend.  Six Nations!  England, France, Ireland, Wales, Scotland and Italy.  It's epic.  Outside of the World Cup, it is my favorite rugby tournament.  Most Americans have some European country they can root for or against.  So!  Who do you want to win!?

BBC America will be showing some of the games.  Universal Sports NBC will be showing several of them.  This website will have them up on YouTube.

To whet your appitite, here is a highlight reel from 2012's Six Nations Tournament.  Gather the boys around and watch this one.

Gareth Edwards

Here is something to do!  Watch this video.  What's the big deal, right?  Run outside and set up a similar drill.  Run back inside.  Watch the video again.  Note his tips on throwing the ball.  Now hop over to YouTube and look up 'Gareth Edwards'.  Watch a few videos.  
Follow to this link:  Gareth Edwards!

Six Nations Trailer 2013: Wales

You like Wales?  Well, here you go!

Jersey Update

Well, the original jersey order fell though.  The ding-bat company did not have any in stock after taking us through the whole ordering process.  Coach Paul got on the Internet and found this sweet jersey.  They are going to slap our logo on there and we will be good to go!

The shorts and socks do not come with the jersey but they are available to order and they are very affordable.  I will post a link soon. 

Street Rugby!

Here is something fun!  It's a promo for a rugby sevens tournament in Hong Kong.  Spend two minutes of your day watching this for sure! By the end of it, you will be convinced that rugby should be played in lucha libre outfits.

Jerseys Ordered!

The jerseys have been ordered!  They are black with screened AYR logo on the front left chest and jersey number on the back.  They will be here in a couple of weeks.

Rugby's Olympic Promo

Here is the official promo for rugby in the Olympics.  3 minutes.  Give it a watch.

Stickers Are Here!

It's the little things that make you happy. Take a few of these and stick them all over the back of Dad's car.  Mom will give you a high-five!

Mouthguards

A few people have asked where to get mouthguards.  This should get you started in your search for what you need.

Mouthguards are made for youth and adults.  Both sizes have types that accommodate braces.  Unfortunatly, the age where the split happens is 11 or 12, so that will make it tough to know which to buy for several of the kids in the older group.  The U10 crowd will all be fine with the youth.  Some 11 and 12 year olds will be right on the cusp between the two sizes and find the adults mouthguard too big.  If your child gags, the mouthguard is too big, so get a youth size.  If you are not sure, get the adult.  If the adult size is too big, hold on to it for when your child grows a bit and get a youth size.

Amazon has a large selection or you can take a drive up to Dick's Sporting Good in Buckhead if you want to compare them in person.

Amazon's Mouthguard Selection
Youth Mouth Guards
For Braces

The Warm Winter

Joe is ready for kick off!

Warm weather! Saturday was another great day of rugby. The 6-8 year olds started at 10 and we had enough to run a proper scrimmage. Lots of kids came out today.  The young ones are hard to control and keep focused.  At first we split them up to work on basic drills.  Then we played ball tag and that got them all running and passing.  I think Max was the champion there.  Then scrimmage!

The older boys started trickling in around 10:45. Coach Paul and I split up, he staying with the scrimmage and me running the 10-ups.  This is the drill they love:  The split into teams of four.  On "go" they run down to the try line, place the ball down as if they were scoring a try.  Then they pick up the ball and kick it back to their team, to the next person in line.  This is a really great drill.  It gets them running and gets them focusing on kicking the ball.

Brian and Harry run in support while Karl tries
to out-flank Sebastian.

News!  Stickers should be here soon!  UPS messed up the delivery so I had to reorder them.  We are also going to try to order t-shirts this week.  We have contacted Phoenix rugby club in Alpharetta and are working on getting some matches with them.  Fingers crossed!

33173

We are officially a rugby club!  We have signed up with USA Rugby and our ID is 33173.  Next to register all the players!

Winter Session Starts!

Gabriel is ready for rugby!

Today was the first day of the Winter Session and it went great. Splitting the younger kids and the older kids worked really well.  The young kids started at 10 with some warm up and passing drills.  We tried a new drill called 'Rob the Nest' that the kids really loved.  I think Donovan and Gus won the most round.   Then we scrimmaged.  Seven boys vs the adults.  The kids crushed!

The older kids showed up at 11am.  Instead of Rob the Nest, we did some kicking drills, splitting the kids into teams and  making them race.  Oh, they raced!  Special recognition to Jack P who claimed he could not kick at all, flubbed his first kick and nailed his next two kicks perfectly.

Then scrimmage.  Always fun.  Ethan, new to rugby, proved to be the star of the day, flanking everyone with his speed.  Here's to hoping he sticks around!

We finished practice off with Jack P and Karl doing tackle drills with Coach Paul.  They learned the basics of coming in low, aiming for the hip and driving forward.  We kept everything at  a slow pace, but that's hard with boys cause they want to tackle hard!  So fun.

Everyone remember to sign up.  See you next week!